Obama, U.S. officials do NSA damage control in Europe

A European outcry over U.S. government surveillance is overshadowing trans-Atlantic talks about tech policy — and the Obama administration, fearing new trade setbacks and penalties, has launched into damage-control mode.

Through speeches in Washington and trips to Brussels, top U.S. officials have spent the summer trying to calm leaders of the European Union and some of its member states, many of whom have called for new restrictions on U.S. Internet companies in the wake of stinging reports about their role in the National Security Agency’s programs.

“I can give assurances to the publics in Europe and around the world that we’re not going around snooping at people’s emails or listening to their phone calls,” Obama said at his news conference. The president offered his thoughts in response to a Swedish reporter’s question — a query, Obama later explained, that he’s “received in previous visits to Europe,” and one he expects he’ll “continue to get as I travel through Europe and around the world.”

EU leaders lambasted the United States almost immediately after Edward Snowden began leaking classified documents this summer to The Guardian and others about the scope of U.S. surveillance.

As the revelations continue, so have Europe’s threats. For example, Viviane Reding, a vice president for the European Commission and the EU’s justice commissioner, slammed Washington in June for its so-called PRISM program, through which the NSA obtains emails and other Internet communications. She even excoriated the U.S. in an op-ed published that same week in The New York Times.

A collection of the region’s top privacy regulators, meanwhile, commenced their own investigation in August following Snowden’s disclosure of XKeyscore, which allows the NSA to analyze Web content. Individual EU member states, including Germany and France, questioned the U.S. government’s practices ahead of key international trade talks. Still others are asking if U.S. Internet providers can be trusted in light of the NSA revelations.

It all amounts to a major policy headache for the White House, which is simultaneously grappling with a domestic furor surrounding the NSA’s conduct. Some of Europe’s criticisms may prove to be bluster, but the Obama administration is still paying close attention. The president, while in Sweden, affirmed Wednesday that the U.S. government is “consulting with the EU” and other world leaders on the matter. The White House did not immediately comment for this story.

Other top U.S. officials are carrying a similar message. Cameron Kerry, the outgoing general counsel of the Commerce Department, turned his final public speech in office into a defense of U.S. privacy and digital trade at the German Marshall Fund last week. Meanwhile, Attorney General Eric Holder has convened meetings with his European counterparts this summer to discuss NSA surveillance issues.

The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency, but Commissioner Julie Brill has touched on the topic repeatedly as she prepares to meet with her European counterparts. Brill, who’s headed to Warsaw later this month for an event scheduled before the Snowden debacle, stressed this week the importance of separating the commercial privacy and government surveillance debates.

“I think the NSA issues are coloring a lot of the conversation now around privacy and data protection,” she told POLITICO on Wednesday. Brill said she’d emphasize the FTC’s enforcement activities while in Europe this month.

The State Department, also at the center of the digital trade debate, declined comment for this story.

The U.S. government’s new outreach reflects the high stakes: U.S. Internet companies have global reach, and any attempt by the EU to penalize those businesses or alter their practices could could create new commercial or legal hurdles. It could further complicate the Obama administration’s work on a new trade pact with its European partners — an agreement known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, as well as longstanding negotiations about international online privacy regulation.